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'Chicago: an introduction' Located on the southwest coast of Lake Michigan in the northeast corner of the state, Chicago is Illinois' most populated city. With over 2,800,000 people, the city is a major transportation hub with claims of the United State's busiest airport and most important railroad freight center (InfoPlease 2010, Hudson 2002, 208). The city's reputation as architecturally innovative has attracted worldwide attention. A powerful city with a resilient history, Chicago is the command center for much of the Middle West (Hudson 2002, 208). For more information on the Middle West, see Group 3. Physical geography and early history Beginning in the late 1700s, first permanent settlement in the area that is now Chicago was built on a prairie marsh that posed particular obstacles (Miller 1996, 18). Previously glaciated, the topography of the land reflects that the area that Chicago occupies used to be a lake bed. A flat, swampy site, the area was attractive to French traders because of its connective waterways (Hudson 2002, 206). Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet and French-born Jesuit Jacques Marquette were the first people of European origin to arrive in the Chicago area. By 1781, the first permanent European-style settlement was established. An African American man from Santo Domingo, Jean Baptiste du Sable strategically chose the area at the mouth of the Chicago River for a trading post. Fort Dearborn, a military base, was built shortly thereafter at the same location. The fort was continually attacked until Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk American Indian tribe was defeated in 1832. With attacks stopped, Chicago became incorporated as a city in 1837. Railroads came to the area throughout the mid-1800s with a result of increased population and economic success (AVOC 2010). The Chicago fire A year after the population in Chicago reached 300,000, a fire started in the barn of Mrs. Patrick O'Leary that, with the help of prairie winds, burned across the city for one-and-a-half days. Consuming the entire city and almost all of its buildings, the fire left 90,000 people homeless and 300 people dead. It was the biggest city fire in American history up to that point and the people of Chicago were in disbelief about the damage it had caused. A once vibrant city, Chicago was nothing but ashes and smoldering wood after the fire (Miller 1996, 15). Chicagoans did not take long to begin the hard work of rebuilding their city though. Just six weeks after the fire started, 300 buildings were already being reconstructed. Leading architects of the time laid out the new Chicago. In 1909 American architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham created The Chicago Plan, which laid out plans for the rebuilding of Chicago. With sharply increased land prices at the end of the 1800s, construction of higher buildings began. In 1885, American architect and engineer William Le Baron Jenney built the Home Insurance Building which is known as the first skyscraper in the world. Not long-lived, the building was demolished in 1931. Several famous architects such as Louis Sullivan and Mies van der Rohe followed William Le Baron Jenney and Chicago became known as a pioneer for architectural innovation (AVOL 2010). The modern city Leaders in the m eat-packing industry for at the turn of the 20th century, Chicago relied on European immigrant labor for much of its economic success. When European immigration slowed in the early 1900s, the city still needed immigrant labor and African Americans from the south began to fill those posistions. As settlement expanded westward throughout the early 1900s, so did the meat-packing industry. As the meat-packing industry left the city, the automotive, food-products, and refining industries moved in. Today, Chicago is known not only for its innovative architecture, but also as a center for trade, banking, and finance (Hudson 2002, 207-208). With mosquito filled swamps, interconnected waterways, and hostile Natives, the geographical situation of the area both attracted and repelled early European development. Interconnected waterways within the region allowed for increased trade opportunities, while mosquito problems and clashes with local people looked to push early settlers from the area. This interplay of human economic drive and land use is a common theme throughout many European settlement stories of the early United States. Chicago's history is like many places that began as trading posts, but unique in the people who interacted with and imposed their culture and lifeways on the place. Even after fire destroyed the city when it was just beginning to achieve substantial growth, Chicagoans persisted in their sense of the place as home. As evidenced by the rebuilt city, Chicago is a living example of the human ability to create a sense of place through the interaction of landscape and culture. Sources A View on Cities: Chicago History. http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/chicagohistory.htm. Last accessed 1 June 2010. Encyclopedia of Chicago History. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10537.html. Last accessed 1 June 2010. Hudson, John. 2002. Across This Land: A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London. Infoplease: All the information you need. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108493.html. Last accessed 1 June 2010. Kiang, Ying-cheng. 1968. Chicago. Chicago: Adams Press. Miller, Donald L. 1996. City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America. New York: Simon & Schuster.